Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John was born on Christmas Day in 2010 via a surrogate mother in California to awaiting parents Sir Elton John and partner David Furnish. What kind of life can the only-child of these star-studded parents expect?
John and Furnish recently sat down with Barbra Walters of ABC News’ 20/20 to talk about their baby for the first time. Their baby, Zachary, was born to a surrogate mother in California because it is the only place in the world where a couple using a surrogate is considered the baby’s legal parents even when the child is still in the womb. Elton John is the biological dad of the now five-month old child.
Since the birth of the child a number of rumors have been circulating with regards to how the child will be raised. The Daily Mail in Great Britain reported that the couple spent $4 million dollars on their son’s nursery by purchasing a next-door apartment and outfitting it with around the clock nannies and a personal chef.
John and Furnish have refuted this claim. They said they’ve not had much time to work on the nursery until the birth of the child to keep the news of their plans to become fathers out of the press’ eye. The real situation of the child’s upbringing is much less glamorous than a $4 million dollar apartment. The actual nursery is being built at their house in Windsor, England, and the child only has one nanny.
They are making an effort to be hands-on parents for the child. They change him, bathe him, and take him out to lunch. While it’s hard to imagine a baby out for lunch at the Beverly Hills Hotel it comes with the territory for these famous parents. However, John says he feels the worst thing a parent can do for the child is “the silver spoon.” To which Furnish agrees, “Our life might be very luxurious but it’s all come from hard work. Both Elton and I have sort of earned everything we’ve done in our careers and furthered our educations through our own drive and our own ambitions and we want Zachary to be exactly the same sort of way.”
See part of the interview here:
Jeffrey Feulner and the Men’s Divorce Law Firm believe in hands-on parenting and a grounded upbringing for a child no matter the parent’s situation. The traits of good parents remain the same across all socioeconomic classes.